By David Fleet

Editor

The Brandon-Goodrich football game—the season kickoff rival game known as the Battle for M-15 is on hold—at least for now.

The Blackhawks-Martians game returned in 2014 after more than 20 years when Lapeer East and West combined to form one school, exiting the Flint Metro League, where Brandon plays. The eight school league was reduced to six teams, thus two open games are on the schedule for Brandon.

However for the 2017 season Owosso High School joined the Flint Metro League, adding a league game to Brandon’s season.

“Our non-league game week did not match up with Goodrich so we no longer will play,” said Chris Deines, Brandon athletic director. “It’s unfortunate, but if our schedule changes we’ll meet Goodrich again.”

Goodrich won in 2014, but the Blackhawks were victorious in 2015 and 2016.

According to the Michigan High School Historical Game-by-Game results, the Brandon-Goodrich rivalry dates back to 1952 and continued until 1992. Following last year’s victory, Goodrich still leads the series 30-12. Prior to 2015—the last time Brandon won was in 1986, by a score of 34-8.

The Blackhawk season will kick-off at 4 p.m., Aug. 26 when they take on Fenton High School at Michigan Stadium, part of a six games in three days Battle of the Big House. Check out The Citizen for more details.